Showing posts with label Kentucky Statehood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kentucky Statehood. Show all posts

Friday, August 18, 2017

State Representatives for KY 1792

This post continues the listing of the first representatives for the State of Kentucky 1792:

Fayette County                                                            Bourbon County         
     William Russell                                                           George M. Bedinger
     John Hawkins                                                              John Waller
     Thomas Lewis                                                             Charles Smith
     Hubbard Taylor                                                           James Smith
     James Trotter                                                             John McKinney
     Joseph Crockett
     James McMillan                                                     Mercer County  
     John McDowell                                                            Samuel Taylor
     Robert Patterson                                                           John Jouett
                                                                                           Jacob Froman
Jefferson County                                                               Robert Mosby
     Richard Taylor
     Robert Breckinridge                                               Madison County  
     Benjamin Roberts                                                          Higgason Grubbs
                                                                                            Thomas Clay
Lincoln County                                                                   John Miller
     William Montgomery
     Henry Pawling                                                        Mason County  
     James Davis                                                                   Alexander D. Orr
     Jesse Cravens                                                                 John Wilson

Nelson County                                                             Woodford County   
     William King                                                                  John Grant
     William Abell                                                                 William Steele
     Matthew Walton                                                             John Watkins
     Edmund Thomas                                                            Richard Young
     Joseph Hobbs
     Joshua Hobbs

Anyone related to any of these folks?  Please leave a comment.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

The Journal (8)

The weather in Kentucky can sure change quickly...you know those April showers.   The following entry is made:

"Monday the 9th day of April 1792."

"The Convention met according to Adjournment.  There not being a sufficient number to proceed to business thro the inclemency of the weather Ordered That the Convention do adjourn untill Tomorrow morning 10 Clock."

The following day is recorded:

"Tuesday the 10th day of April 1792."

"The Convention met according to Adjournment."

"Resolved, That this Convention do now resolve itself into a committee of the whole to take into farther consideration the matters to them referred. Mr. Garrard was elected to the Chair and after some time spent Mr. President resumed the Chair, - Mr. George Nicholas the the County of Mercer being reelected appeared & took his seat the Convention again went into a Committee of the whole & Mr. Garrard was again elected to the Chair and after some farther time spent therein the President  resumed the Chair & the Chairman reported that the Committee of the whole had taken into their farther consideration the matters to them referred & had made some farther progress therein but not having time to go thro the same had directed him to move for leave to sit again Tomorrow which was granted."

"Resolved That this Convention will Tomorrow again resolve itself into a Committe of the whole to take into father consideration the matters to them referred"

"The Convention then Adjourned untill Tomorrow Morning, 10 O'Clock."

Sunday, January 8, 2017

The Journal (6)

The Convention continues:

"Friday the 6th day of April 1792"

"The Convention met according to Adjournment."

"Resolved That this Convention will now according to the Order of the day resolve itself into a Committee of the whole to take into farther consideration the matters to them referred.  Mr. Shelby was elected to the Chair and after sometime spent the President resumed the Chair and the Chairman reported that the Committee of the whole had taken into farther consideration the matters to them referred and had made farther progress therein but not having time to go thro' the same had directed him to move for leave to sit again Tomorrow which was granted."

"Resolved That this Convention will Tomorrow again resolve itself into a Committee of the whole to take into farther consideration the matters to them referred."

"The Convention then adjourned untill Tomorrow morning Ten O'Clock."

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

The Journal (1)

The first "Constitutional Convention" of Kentucky was held in Danville, April 2 to April 19, 1792.  A "Journal" was kept of the meetings, which was reproduced by the State Bar Association of Kentucky for "Kentucky's Sesquicentennial Anniversary, June 1, 1942.  On page 1, the first day's activities are recorded as follows:

"At a Convention begun and held at Danville in the County of Mercer on Monday the second day of April in the year of our Lord One Thousand seven hundred and ninety-two."

[Boyle County was not to form for almost 1/2 century [1842] after this convention was held here in Danville.  All legal and court records are located in Mercer County prior to 1842.]

"On which day being the day appointed by a resolution of a Convention held for the District of Kentucky on the Thirtieth day of July One Thousand Seven hundred and Ninety."

[This was the ninth convention that was held at Danville on Monday, July 26, 1790.  George Muter was elected President, and Thomas Todd, was elected Clerk at this 9th meeting.]

" A Majority of the members having met and taken their Seats."

"Ordered That Mr. Thomas Todd be appointed Clerk to this Convention."

"The Honble Samuel McDowell was unanimously elected President"

Appointing "Clerk" and "President" was the first order of business.  The Todd and McDowell families were continue their roles in the foundation of Danville.  The front page of this source is shown below:




Wednesday, February 24, 2016

The Creating of Kentucky

The text by James Rood Robertson contains the following in a footnote on p. 82 pertaining to the first action taken by the General Assembly of Virginia toward the formation of Kentucky as a State. [Henings Statues, Vol. 12, 37 ]

"Whereas it is represented to be the desire of the good people inhabiting the district known by the name of the Kentucky District that the same should be separated from this Commonwealth whereof it is a part and be formed into an independent member of the American Confederacy and it is judged by the General Assembly that such a partition of the Commonwealth is rendered expedient by the remoteness of the more fertile which must be the more populous part of the said district and by the interjacent impediment to a convenient and regular communication therewith, Be it enacted, "

"A convention was to be held at Danville on the fourth Monday of September made up of delegates from the seven counties, five from each.  The call was to be posted twenty days and the election was to continue five days to give full opportunity for expression of opinion."

"The boundary was to be unchanged, the new State was to assume its just proportion of the debt, the lands of non-residents were not to be taxed above those of residents, grants of land by the new State were not to interfere with grants made by Virginia, lands set apart for soldiers were subject to grant only by Virginia, up to 1788, the use of the Ohio River to be common, and assent of United States Congress to the separation necessary."

Wow...what a deal...all to happen at a convention to be held at Danville!  Historic Danville...indeed it is.

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Act of Separation 1785 (7)

The final part of this letter continues:

"In this Address we have discarded the complimentary stile of adulation & insincerity- it becomes Freemen when speaking to Freemen, to imploy the plain, manly unadorned Language of Independence.....September 23d 1785"

The individuals who signed this document that I have been able to find are: 1) John Coburn, 2) William Kennedy, 3) George Muter, 4) Samuel McDowell, and 5) Levi Todd.

This petition was sent to committee at the General Assembly of Virginia 14th November 1785.

This documentation taken from: Petitions of The Early Inhabitants of Kentucky To The General Assembly of Virginia 1769 to 1792, by James Rood Robertson, John P. Morton & Company, 1914. pp. 79 - 82.

Friday, May 1, 2015

Ten Pre-State Conventions

Between November 1784 and April 1792, there were ten pre-state conventions all held in Danville.




 The above shows the title page of the "Journal of the First Constitutional Convention of Kentucky" held in Danville, April 2 to April 19, 1792. [The final meeting of the prior conventions where the separation from Virginia was finally arranged.]

On page x of the pamphlet is outlined the dates and the names of some of the folks involved.  The next several posts will give this information.  The process to become a State took also ten years in the lives of those living in Danville.

Item 1:

     "An informal meeting of 'the principal men of the District' which resulted in the calling of the First Kentucky Convention was held on November 7 and 8, 1784.  Colonel William Fleming presided on the first day of the meeting and Colonel Isaac Shelby presided on the second day.  Christopher Greenup was chosen Clerk."

The participants of the battle of "Point Pleasant" made up many of the folks recorded among these pages.  Colonel William Fleming was seriously wounded in the battle which became a legend among the settlers of this area.  He also secured as many as 30,000 acres with some being in all three counties. [Jefferson, Fayette, Lincoln]

Isaac Shelby was considered the "hero" of "Point Pleasant" who lead a flanking attack to save the day. [He was to become the first Governor of the State.]

Christopher Greenup was one of the first Trustees of the town lots of Danville, and purchased lot #57 with George Nicholas and Thomas Barbie.  The year 1784 was to start things off.

The reference(s):

Journal of the First Constitutional Convention of Kentucky - Held in Danville, Kentucky, April 2 to 19, 1792.  Published in Commemoration of Kentucky's Sesquicentennial Anniversary, June 1, 1942, By the State Bar Association of Kentucky.  Lexington, Kentucky, 1942.

Certificate Book of  The Virginia Land Commission 1779-1780. By The Kentucky Historical Society, 1923. [Southern Historical Press, Inc., SC., 1981]

Jones, J.E., "KEN-TAH-THE", The Life and Times of Walker Daniel, Founder of the Town Lands of Danville, Kentucky, 18th Day of June 1784,  2009.